Priorities Matter

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Matthew 6:21  

Everyday in America the news media is quick to point out this problem and that problem with no viable solution. And the ones being offered up are likened to putting a bandaid on a severed artery. You don’t need an advanced degree to understand that we have a problem in America that all the brain thrust available cannot fix for the simple fact our problem is spiritual at its root. Our priorities are all wrong. Until we get things right with God nothing we come up with will have any positive lasting effect. Don’t take my word for it, as it was Jesus Himself who said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Remember the old saying, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

In the end it all comes down to priorities. We are investing all our energy and effort in temporal things all the while losing site of the eternal. Priorities matter. Consider the following statement and I think you will understand my point. In America we tend to “love things and use people” whereas God has called us to “love people and use things.” Yes, loved one, it all comes down to priorities. God is the God of order.

When America gets her priorities straight in loving God and loving people, all people, our world will become a beautiful place to live. I’m reminded of a father who was wanting to read the newspaper one Saturday morning while his 3 year old son was wanting him to play. Trying to buy himself a few more minutes to finish reading the paper the father noticed a world map on a section of the newspaper he had already read. He took the map and tore it into small sections and gave the pieces to his young son and said, “here honey, put the map together and when you are done you and daddy will go play.” thinking it would be awhile before the child figured it all out. The young boy gladly excepted the pieces and sat down on the floor next to his father and began putting the pieces together. In less than two minutes the boy called to his father to let him know he was done, the map was completed. The father was astonished. He thought to himself, “my boys a genius” he did that so fast. The father asked his son how did he put the pieces together so quickly? The young child said gleefully, "it was easy. I just looked on the back of the world map and saw a man and when I put the man together the world came together."

Thats it! There is the solution to the problem. When we as a nation come together and focus on putting “the man together” and making people whole, the world will naturally come together and not the other way around. Memorize this little pithy proverb today and use it as a litmus test in helping you keep your own priorities straight, “love people, use things.”



"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

Matthew 22:36-40

I LOVE YOU!